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Operating Relay Nodes & NAT Traversal

Membuss utilizes libp2p Circuit Relay v2 and DCUtR (Direct Connection Upgrade through Relay) to ensure seamless connectivity between nodes behind NATs, firewalls, and carrier-grade NATs (CGNAT).

1. Overview​

  • AutoNAT v2: Automatically probes public vs. private reachability.
  • Circuit Relay v2: Publicly accessible nodes act as relay hops for NATed peers.
  • DCUtR Hole Punching: Automatically upgrades relayed connections to direct peer-to-peer streams.
  • Mem-Herald Relay Discovery: Automatically advertises active relay providers on the DHT namespace /membuss/relays/v1.

2. Configuration for Public Bootnodes & Relay Servers​

Public nodes (VPS, dedicated servers, Anchor nodes) should enable relay_service and force_public to guarantee 24/7 uninterrupted relay availability:

# membuss.yaml

# Enable Circuit Relay v2 hop service
relay_service: true
relay_max_conns: 256
relay_max_reservations: 256
relay_bandwidth_mb: 32

# Lock host reachability to Public (prevents AutoNAT probe drops from stopping the relay)
force_public: true

CLI / Environment Overrides​

You can also pass these settings via CLI flags or environment variables:

# Via CLI flag
membuss daemon start --force-public

# Via Environment Variable
export MEMBUSS_FORCE_PUBLIC=true
membuss daemon start

3. Configuration for Private / NATed Nodes​

Nodes running on home networks, mobile devices, or behind strict firewalls can configure static relay nodes or discover them dynamically via the DHT:

# membuss.yaml

# Static relay bootstrap nodes
relay_peers:
  - /ip4/45.10.162.79/udp/4001/quic-v1/p2p/12D3KooWMNbuDSWaMw7evxzsp9CtaphofzxcEbHisWQQUmg7zfUx

# (Optional) Force private mode to immediately acquire relay reservations without waiting for AutoNAT
force_relay: false